NSW road maintenance funding at historic highs

Minister for Roads and Ports Duncan Gay today announced record levels of funding for maintenance and minor improvements to roads and bridges in NSW, including council owned infrastructure.

“In 2013-14, the NSW Liberals & Nationals Government has committed $1.54 billion towards the maintenance and repair of roads and bridges on state and council owned networks – this is the largest funding commitment for maintenance in the state’s history,” Minister Gay said.

The record roads and bridges maintenance allocation in 2013-14 includes nearly $432 million in Block Grants, REPAIR funding and forecasted natural disaster payments to councils; a 36 per cent funding increase compared to NSW Labor’s $318 million spend in 2010-11.

Minister Gay said the historic allocation is the direct result of the O’Farrell-Stoner Government delivering record levels of roads and bridges funding, more than $15 billion for new capital works, ongoing maintenance and minor improvements, in its first three budgets.

“This historic funding is just not benefiting big state-driven projects like WestConnex, but also small council works such as repairing a timber bridge at Captains Flat, upgrading the Lismore-Bangalow Road at Howards Grass or restoring flood-damaged roads in North West NSW.

“We have also committed a record $217 million in 2013-14 towards maintaining state and council owned roads and bridges in Western Sydney,” he said.

Maintenance funding for roads and bridges (state & council owned) by key regions

NSW Coalition

NSW Labor

Region

2013-14 (allocation)$000

2010-11 (spend)$000

% increase

Western Sydney

217,000

118,696

83

Illawarra

46,000

41,397

11

South Coast

184,000

134,242

37

Central Coast

36,000

20,384

76

Hunter

185,000

127,236

45

North Coast

202,904

119,902

69

Western NSW*

528,000

435,739

21

*Western NSW represents approximately 54 per cent of the land mass of the state. As such, the region has the largest number of roads and bridges in NSW, some of which were severely impacted by floods in 2010-11 and 2011-12. For example, Western NSW contains 35 per cent of the state owned and managed road network alone.